100 billion check-based transactions are made in the United States each year. Many of these check transactions are still cleared by physical processing and transporting of the original printed paper check. When checks are processed for payment, the routing and account information on the front of the check is read, and images are captured of the front and back sides of the check to capture information written on the check by a payer and any endorsements on the back of the check by the payee. Check processing systems at financial institutions and consumer locations do so by passing a large number of checks through large check processing systems to enter these checks into the financial systems computers for payment. Recently, smaller and faster check processing systems, having shorter document travel distances, have been introduced for check processing at different types of places of business, thereby allowing the business to digitize the information on the check.
For example, a range of small, low-cost table-top devices exist and are used in various places of business. These document processing systems are designed to feed numbers of documents, such as checks and like financial instruments, singly, from a stack, and sequentially perform various processing functions upon them. One such processing function is capturing a digital image of the document. As the size and cost targets of this class of devices have reduced, the relative cost of the digital imaging means (hereinafter ‘scanners’ or ‘cameras’) employed has assumed a greater and greater part of the overall cost. In response to this, workers have sought innovative ways to enable one scanner to capture an image of both sides of a given document, thus eliminating the significant cost of a second scanner and associated electronic processing means.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,103,985, Shell et al taught a turn-around loop apparatus which first passes the document face before an image scanner, then through a loop which reverses the document and passes it again past the same scanner, which then captures an image of the reverse face. Shell et al. taught the use of ‘switch points’ to enable this bi-directional arrangement and ensure that documents driven through such a loop track would be directed to the correct directions within the track, according to the direction in which they are passing the scanner. Shell et al. described securing the scanner in a fixed position and constrain the documents to pass bi-directionally in front of the scanner. This was the purpose and function of the ‘switch points’ of that patent.
The ‘switch points’ or document-activated gates described in Shell et al. are costly to manufacture, present difficulties in manufacture and service, and can cause document jams and other failures since they are entirely dependent for their correct function on the stiffness, integrity and kinetic energy of the passing document. However, the desire to reduce cost in a document processing system remains.
For these and other reasons, improvements are desirable.